Keynotes

This is an exciting time for the USA Section with many changes and plans being made or considered. There are many opportunities for us to expand and improve this great organization. Some of these activities are described below:

1. We have worked with the College-at-large to establish independent offices for both groups, but still in close proximity to one another in Maryland. Our close working relationship and mutually supportive attitudes will provide benefits to both groups as a result of this "growing" activity.
   
   
2. We have transitioned to a new USA Registrar, Dr. Carol Turner. Dr. Turner, a retired US Naval Admiral, will head the USA's Central Office, working with Mary Jo Webster and Jennifer Greenville. She is highly qualified for this position and has already begun significant contributions in strengthening our Section. Former USA Registrar and Secretary-General of the College, Dr. Robert Brady (retired US Army General) retired as of January 1, 2010. What a contribution Bob and Jan made to the ICD! For over 10 years, the Bradys have provided leadership, direction, and most of all friendship to the ICD family, here and abroad. We will miss Bob and Jan tremendously.
   
   
3. I am totally impressed with the productivity and thoroughness of our Board of Regents and Section's committees. Our current Regents are extremely engaged in the betterment of our Section. They are visionary and expressive in their commitment to our efforts. We are making great strides in developing our Strategic Plan, revising our Bylaws, enhancing our projects, increasing our Student Exchange program, promoting our Leadership emphasis, recognizing and assisting journalism efforts, and presenting our budgetary issues in a most understandable and usable format. I hope each of our committees will continue their remarkable efforts during 2010.
4. We need to be instantly communicable with our Fellows! This requires updating our data base with current Fellow email addresses (and I encourage every Fellow to do so by providing that information to the Central office: maryjo@usa-icd.org !), creating our Section WebPages to reflect current and accurate content, disseminating information between districts as well as from the Central Office to districts and individual Fellows, providing "all-electronic" Candidate Information Form usage (no longer requiring "snail mail" inclusion), and having periodic communications of interesting and updated information from our Central Office to our Fellows.
   
   
5. We need to develop strategies for making sure that our Fellows perceive a worth for their fellowship. The ICD must inspire our Fellows to be not only proud of their fellowship but also become strong proponents of the organization. For this to occur, the ICD must be credible and meaningful. It must stand for professional values or goals that Fellows support. It must also be visionary, projecting activities that instill in its Fellows pride, ownership, and inspiration. The ICD must be viable and provide value to the member and the profession.
   
   
6. We need to strengthen the role of the Section's relationship with the USA Section ICD Foundation. We have had much financial support provided to our Foundation over the past 20 plus years and we must utilize that support for the betterment of those activities and projects that encompass our organizational goals and objectives, both in the USA and abroad. This can be accomplished by joint efforts of both groups to identify appropriate projects, determine funding for such projects, and identify and implement mechanisms to significantly enhance the funding for the Foundation. Also, we need to consider and identify a "branding" project for the USA Section and Foundation.

This list is not complete because there are many other issues that we will need to also address during the year. But this does highlight what I think may be some of the more important and complex issues to address.

What we all have to remember is that we are together in our commitment to make this organization even greater. Having a cooperative relationship among the various parts of our organization is paramount. Providing worth to our members is paramount. Maintaining the sense of the "ICD Family" is paramount. Continuing to recognize worthy fellowship candidates is paramount. None of these require extraordinary effort, just common sense and support.

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